Notes

Grades Remove Intrinsic Motivation

Grades and the havoc they impart on the teaching and learning process impacts the desire to learn for learning’s sake. When the goal of education is the grade at the end of an assignment, a specific period of time, or course, the intrinsic motivation to excel in other realms of life that may not have extrinsic rewards is much more difficult. How do we encourage our children to work toward a goal that may not have a tangible benefit at the end? By focusing and stressing grades as parents and teachers, we force our children to believe that the destination is more important than the journey. This message comes across loud and clear to our kids. Many kids feel pressured to cut corners, sacrifice ethics, and take easier courses, all in an effort to achieve better grades instead of better learning.

Now, teachers own a part of this cycle as well. Do we always assign meaningful work? Do we always assess for growth? Do we always communicate expectations? I believe we are getting better at this but we certainly have some work to do. We complain about students only being interested in grades, but how much of that do we, as teachers, create ourselves? Reflecting back on my practice, I warrant to guess that we contribute a great deal.